How to use print as a gateway to more information

Want your flyer, postcard or letter marketing piece to be more effective? It’s pretty easy to make this happen. Aside from attractive graphics, effective copy and a good offer, you can give your marketing a huge boost by maximizing the use of space in your printed piece.

When you use print as a marketing tool, you have a limited amount of space within which to get your message across. Try to include everything you want your audience to know about you, your company and your offer and you will end up diluting your message and making a giant, convoluted mess of your marketing piece. There are ways, however, to best use the limited space and get your printing to act as a gateway to all the information you want to share. Below are a few ways to make your printed materials work hand in hand with the web, and in so doing provide a better customer experience.

1. Direct traffic to your valuable web assets.

Use your printed materials to generate traffic to your website and other important web assets. The more a potential client knows about you and your company, the more comfortable they’ll become with the idea of trusting you with their business. It’s really tough to accomplish this on a single flyer or postcard, so send readers of your print where they can find more information about you. Even on a “simple” flyer, you should include your contact information, your web address and any social media profiles where potential customers can learn more about you and get to know you better. With respect to this last point, here’s a little advice: asking someone to “Like” you on Facebook is so 2008. Don’t ask your would-be clients to like you. Give them a reason to like you — such as by providing great customer service. And don’t direct them to social media accounts where your business isn’t active. That’s a huge no-no. The tip is to direct them to your valuable web assets… not places where they find nothing but a blank wall or useless tweets you posted about how wonderful you are.

2. Provide URLs to specific information.

A URL is a web address. Most often a URL takes you to a web page, but it can also be some other resource such as a document. When when you use URLs in your printed materials, don’t fall into the common trap of simply including the address of your website’s homepage. Give the URL where the potential customer can find the exact information you want them to find. Don’t make them search your website for it! If you do that they’ll soon get frustrated and give up. If the URL of the page on your site (or Facebook page, Google+ page, etc.) is too long, consider using a link shortening service such as http://bit.ly. Doing this will help reduce typing errors which send customers to the wrong place (such as a 404 error page), and this will increase customer satisfaction as well as conversions. Another method of sending your customer exactly where you want them to go is to set up a sub-domain. For example, you could set up specials.yourdomain.com to forward visitors to a page on your website where they find the precise details of your offer, along with any terms and conditions that apply. Don’t waste valuable space in your printed piece with fine print when you can put it on the web and direct readers to it.

3. Include QR codes.

QR codes are little square black & white graphics that open up a specific page on the Internet when they are scanned by a bar code reader. Bar code readers are available on smartphones and tablets and they help connect the physical world (such as your printed piece) with the virtual world. While not everybody who owns a tablet or smartphone knows how to use QR codes, the numbers are certainly growing. You can make things easy for those that understand them by including these little “links” in your printed materials. They are eye-catching and they don’t take up much space. As with URLs, send your audience directly to the content you want them to read, not just your homepage.

Hopefully these tips will help you get the most out of your next print marketing piece. Let us know if you get results!

About Tom Gimer

I guess you'd call me the "technical" guy at the shop. When the machines start to act up, they call me in. (I then call a service tech.) When I'm not dealing with the machines or writing or editing copy and/or code for clients, I also practice real estate law. It's a long story. Connect with me on LinkedIn or on the golf course.